SF and Surroundings
In 2019, a lot of my closest friends lived in San Francisco. With just one Bubble Republic planning session, Steph and I decided to book flights for an ambitious road trip with Cora in and around the Bay area (IN A TESLA!!).
Office hoppping pt. 1
As soon as we landed, Steph and I dropped our stuff off at Cora's place in Fremont, then picked up the Tesla and got smoothie bowls in Palo Alto. From there, we met up with Jeffrey Ying in Mountainview for a tour of the Google office. He showed us their excellent caf food, then we participated in some shenanigans like playing piano in the music room, checking out the rooftop, exploring the hidden speakeasy, and taking pictures with the various Android figurines.
Afterwards, we reunited with Cora at the Facebook office (this was in the pre-Meta era). We hung out with Dev, got dinner here with Francis and JoMak, and even bumped into Alice Poon! The Facebook campus gave a lot of manicured "planned community vibes."
Through the fire and the flames
The next day, we found ourselves in a bit of a catch-22 because of wildfires ravaging California. Cora's home in Fremont was going to completely lose power (a planned black-out to prevent further forest fire risk), so we thought it was a brilliant idea to head farther east to Yosemite, which wasn't in the blackout zone. Unfortunately for us, we didn't account for the fact that we were driving directly INTO the forest fires. How were we supposed to hike when we couldn't even breathe (spoiler alert, we didn't)?!
Thanks to our jetlag, Steph and I were completely fine waking up before 5 am for this ill-advised journey. I think the pace was a bit harrowing for Cora, who actually LIVED in SF and therefore didn't benefit from jetlag, but she took it like a champ. We charged up the Tesla and stopped at Panera Bread (ahh, back in the days when Pick Two was actually good value) and the Tayana Lodge to refuel. Side note: it's a bad idea to drive a fully electric vehicle on a multi-hour, multi-day road trip.
We made our way to Glacier Point for a nice view of half-dome. At this time, the skies were still fairly clear, so we took some pictures. The only sense of foreboding came from the scraggly dead trees dotting the skyline.
Before we knew it, the ongoing forest fires turned apocalyptic. By the time we reached the Tunnel view, the sky was orange. When we considered hiking the 1.6km Mist Trail, we found the air unbearable to breathe (and gave up before we made it out of the parking lot). We walked to the nearby Bridalveil Falls as a consolation prize.
Yosemite is still beautiful in the midst of a forest fire. We went back to the Tenaya Lodge to "plan" (aka refuel, since the Tesla could not make the full trip on a single charge). Despite the comical series of events and missteps, we had a wonderful time with real talks on the drive. To cap off the evening, we stopped by In-n-Out for dinner. McDonald's fries are WAY better (it's because In-n-Out uses new oil every time, I've come to learn! Kinda ominous that this fact makes their fries worse. I try not to think about it too much).
Big Sur, sure!
The next day, we started exceedingly early once again for a day trip to Big Sur and Carmel-by-the-Sea. We stopped by Trader Joe's and Target, which still had a shiny sheen for Steph and me (before we also moved to the US and learned that Trader Joe's produce is no bueno).
We drove by McWay Falls, which was so pretty. Half the path was blocked (Murphy's law and all), but we made the most of it. Then we went to The Sur House restaurant at the Ventana Big Sur — mostly to charge the Tesla, but we also got some fun snacks and a great view.
Then we made our way to Point Lobos State Park, where we took pictures that looked straight out of a women's health ad ("You too, can be empowered to do anything you want!!"). HERE is where the fated Tesla incident occurred. We were driving along a one-way path. Another car began to approach, so Steph maneuvered the car towards the right. After the car passed, Steph went to drive again: only to realize we were too close to a huge set of bushes on our right. We heard a terrifying scraping sound, akin to nails on a chalkboard. It turned out we had scratched the Tesla from the very front of the car all the way to the rear (lights, paint, etc.). In vain, we tried “wiping off the dirt.” Spoiler alert: it wasn’t dirt.
Can you believe a place can look so idyllic with a bird colony and bushes that seem straight out of an OTC ad, while simultaneously costing you and your friends thousands of dollars?
However, we couldn’t dwell on this car situation. We had a dinner reservation to catch: our first-ever self-funded Michelin-starred meal at L’Aubergine at L’Auberge Carmel! This restaurant was in Carmel-by-the-Sea, which was a super cute town. We browsed the shops a little bit, and discovered that the town had… almost… TOO MANY art galleries?
As for the dinner itself, it was super memorable and delicious. Perhaps one of my favourite meals of all time, but that might be because it was my first “investment meal” where I paid my own $$$ for fine-dining. There’s no one else I would’ve wanted to have this experience with. We joked around with the extensive juice pairing (at this point, probably the best I’ve ever had! Just… any sort of pairing is far too much liquid, personally). I loved the little duck packet and kohlrabi (something I’d never even HEARD of before). We capped off the meal with a belated birthday celebration for Steph.
Finally, we made our way home — driving along to throwback hits and trying (again!) to wipe off the car scratches (and no, it still didn’t work).
Between the vines
The next day, we woke up early (again!) for a Napa wine tour! It was my first time taking the BART to our tour bus. The BART is a bit of a meme among the Waterloo crowd with famed horror stories (perhaps because they’re all people with free shuttles to work or copious Uber discount coupons from their tech companies). After all the hype, it was surprisingly better than expected!
While I am not the biggest wine person, the tour was fun. We got to wander through a bunch of super-aesthetic gardens and see the wine production facilities.
For lunch, we got seafood at Hog Island Oyster Co and went for some mid froyo in Napa. We then journeyed back to SF, where we met up with Alex Jin! Alex gave as a tour of the Dropbox office and took us to their happy hour. They had GREAT food and aesthetically pleasing aluminum water bottles. The office was super cute with themed rooms. Dropbox also has a thing for Pusheen—there were giant Pusheen plushies EVERYWHERE.
That night, instead of commuting back on the BART to Cora’s place in Fremont, the three of us crashed at Henry’s place in Dogpatch while he was away for the weekend. Dogpatch is such a nice, gentrified area! It felt super clean and safe. I didn’t make note of this, but in a recent conversation with the gals, Cora reminded us of a funny anecdote where we arrived at Henry’s, and Steph flung a piece of dirty laundry from the bed to the other side of the room.
City exploring
The next day, we grabbed dim sum at City View Restaurant with Alex and Anaëlle. It was the most Mandarin-speaking dim sum I’ve ever experienced. We ate things like soft white buns and xiaolongbao. It was so… civilized. Where are the screaming aunties?!
Next, we grabbed some Yi Feng bubble tea—familiar and beloved by all. I had hoped to see the Chinatown Flavour mural where Cora had taken some prior cute Instagram pics, but we sadly discovered that the mural had been painted over with nothingness. Why?! We continued on by Fisherman’s Wharf to see the seals. Pro tip: if you find yourself in need of a nice washroom near here, the exploratorium is fun and clean.
Next, we went to the Ferry building to check out the farmer’s market with free samples and artisanal stores. Anaëlle was super enthused about this area; it seems like she actually buys stuff here! At that point in my life, I was so far from being settled into a routine of visiting farmer’s markets.
Alex and Anaëlle also took us to their place in the Mission. It was nice, spacious, and clean, but they mentioned that it wasn’t the best area. Anaëlle carried pepper spray wherever she went! The Mission is definitely getting gentrified though. We visited Bi-rite ice creamery in the neighbourhood. I had a surprisingly good malted vanilla flavour—it had chunks in it! Ice cream in hand, we made our way to Mission Dolores Park. I was surprised by how big it is. It seems like Mission Dolores is where everyone hangs out on the weekends. We also met up with Jeffrey Ying and one of his roommates here.
With our extended squad, we strolled along cute stores in the Mission along Valencia. There were mainly stationery, earring, and artisan stores. We got tacos for dinner at super hyped-up place called Taqueria El Farolito. The locals proclaimed it was their favourite, but I found the whole meal a bit too spicy for me. I order a tostada and nachos, and there’s something about processed cheese in America that is a lot more rubbery and oily. Gotta appreciate the Dairy Farmers of Ontario!
Finally, we capped off the day in SF with Boba Guys. I am OBSESSED with the chocochata—may it rest in peace, as I never saw it around in subsequent years. From there, we headed back to Fremont. It was fun chatting with Cora, Francis, and Steph throughout the evening. I learned about some Facebook initiative called Threads (2024 ed note: OMG THEY ACTUALLY MADE THIS A REAL, HYPED UP THING LAST YEAR!! Zuck’s fantasy has finally been manifested, and all it took was the death of Twitter via Elon Musk) and had fun catching up more generally.
That was the end of the SF 2019 trip! Steph and I flew back home the next day. A word of caution: don’t order an açai bowl at SFO. It was so artificial. I suppose I was spoiled with such great corporate-office meals throughout the week. This was my first time being a tourist in a city where many of my close friends now live, so it was cool having a balance between cool things in the (albeit long road trip) vicinity and seeing how my friends now lived day-to-day. Having friends around made visiting so much easier—as I would soon discover when visiting SF again in just a few short months!
Trip date: Oct 8-13, 2019